The invention relates to snowshoes, and in particular is concerned with an efficient heel cleat design for a snowshoe.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,440,827 and 5,699,630 shows a snowshoe with a front claw and a heel cleat. The heel cleat is secured to the deck membrane of the snowshoe and is positioned to be engaged by the heel of the user's shoe or boot, with downwardly extending teeth to grip terrain when the heel bears down on the snowshoe.
The snowshoe heel cleat disclosed in the above referenced patents, both of which are incorporated herein by reference, had a horizontal terrain facing member, or base platform, from which a pair of side wall flanges with teeth extended downwardly, through slits in the snowshoe deck's membrane. Thus, the horizontal plate or base platform of the referenced patents was above a deck membrane layer, allowing the downwardly extending teeth to engage terrain, but isolating the base platform or plate from contact with ice and snow to avoid buildup of ice at the bottom of the snowshoe deck. Atlas Snowshoe Company follows the snowshoe heel cleat design described in the above referenced patents, but in later snowshoes has included an additional plate on the top of the snowshoe deck and riveted together with the horizontal platform or plate of the heel cleat. The additional plate has been positioned to bear against and additional, upper layer of deck membrane, with the cleat's horizontal plate or platform being sandwiched between the two membrane layers. The purpose of the upper plate has been to provide rows of small serrations extending upwardly for engaging with the bottom of the user's boot, for high friction gripping by the boot as the snowshoe is used. Typically, these rows of serrations were four in number, one at each of the front edge, back edge and two side edges of the upper plate.
It is an object of the invention to integrate the upper plate and the lower cleat component of the described rear cleat assembly into a single metal component which has the terrain engaging teeth and the smaller serrations for engagement by the user's boot, thereby making the heel cleat assembly more economically efficient in components as well as assembly.